So, what compels us to play games like these? In the case of Torchlight II, it's pretty simple—the game looks and sounds splendid, and is a joy to play. Its world is inviting and rich, colors bouncing around the screen in a deadly, candy-colored fireworks show. Ex-Diablo composer Matt Uelmen's soundtrack is the perfect complement to the action, a blend of acoustic guitar arpeggios, industrial-metal dirge and dark fantasy caterwauling that stays out of the way without hiding. The feel of the game is spot-on as well, and it conveys a sense of easy empower-ment—by the end of my first time through, my engineer was a walking bomb, capable of dropping seismic rifts with her boots before slamming her weapon into the earth, igniting all within her sizable reach.

Torchlight II succeeds in being a truly viable alternative to Diablo III. The action is faster and thicker and rewards are set to a quickened treadmill pace, resulting in an experience that is immediately rewarding and increasingly addictive. Its seamless co-op (which includes player trading) openly gives Blizzard the middle finger as it allows players to decide whether to play a solo game offline or open it up for drop-ins. Torchlight II lacks deep character customisation, the dungeons are smaller than Diablo III and you feel very much on the action RPG fast track. However, this is evened out by a deep skill system, helpful pet AI, satisfying weapon and spell effects and the ever-present (and constantly rewarding) rain of loot.

As expected, very good reviews. Though I couldn't help but notice some silly cons like "Moddability and offline nature means no chance at a thriving Diablo-style economy". Seriously why would players want pay2win for mods and single-player experience? How is that a bad thing? Also, ausgamers says: "It still feels like it is copying Diablo". In what way? Imo PoE is more like Diablo in terms of atmosphere but TL2 has different graphics, story, skill tree, etc

Great game overall. I just wish there was a review where Diablo is not mentioned.

I have nothing against TL 2, and may even play it. However, I still suspect the wave of really high marks are a reaction to the disappointment of Diablo 3 (sadly I didn't realize how disappointing it was until wasting many hours). Thus, I will wait before purchasing. The cartoony style is one I reserve for WoW only, and that is one reason for my hesitation as well.

Originally Posted by vurt
When i first saw the graphics of this game i wasnt too impressed and kind of disliked it, but now when i actually play it i really like the art style. The animations are very fluid and nice too.

I have never played the first, so I went in with a completely clean slate, not a single ounce of knowledge about the game. I wasn't enthralled by the art style myself, but I'm finding it fits with the atmosphere and feels exactly as you mentioned, fluid. I chose the mage (known as Embermage, I believe), and right now my toughest choices are picking spells, knowing you cannot respec other than the 3 most recent points you spent (at least, to my knowledge).

In short, it's a step above what I expected and it's a lot of fun (not having played an ARPG for more than a decade now). The "online only" policy and negativity circling the D3 fanbase kept me away from it (though, I've never played any Diablo game to begin with, and seeing all the long time fans who were jaded and disappointed didn't help much to my excitement of trying one for the first time).

Having said that, I'm going to avoid a D3 discussion because I don't want to see another versus thread. Just know that my experience with Torchlight II has been a fun one so far, and for $20, I feel that I've gotten more than what I paid for.

I think he is referring to character creation before you start a game. Played until level 7 yesterday and had a lot of fun. I will have to play more before I can say much, but right now it compares very favorably to Diablo 3. Anyone know the level cap?